Hands down the best thing I've read on AI and the attacks on Iran

We at @brennancenter.org found that Palantir’s defense revenue surged over the last decade. 2025 was their most profitable year ever.

Numbers can mislead. But sometimes they just don’t lie.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Kill Chain On the automated bureaucratic machinery that killed 175 children

How Palantir, not Anthropic, led US bombs to kill 175 civilians, mostly 7-12yo girls, in a school in Minab, Iran on Feb 28. How embedding automation - not LLMs in this case, just image processing and sensor fusion - in military workflows mutes human judgment, causes errors, & diverts accountability.

This is the Garda Siochana (Recording Devices) Amendment Bill 2025

We're told this is not the much talked about FRT bill as that is, as yet, unwritten. But it's unclear what this novel term "biometric analysis" actually means.

It is not defined in the AI Act.

data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachta...

Defense Dept. and Anthropic Square Off in Dispute Over A.I. Safety

1/ The dispute between Anthropic and DOD over the limits of using AI in warfare is escalating. I’ll have more to say on what these limits should be in a @brennancenter.org report out next month. But for now, here’s what you need to know, and what’s truly at stake 🧵:

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/t...

Artificial Insecurity: access and availability in the age of AI - Access Now In the third part of our blog series, we look at how the availability of systems is impacted by the proliferation of large language models.

Amazing colleagues @djleufer.bsky.social and Vlad have just finished a triad of articles analizing LLMs and fleshing out the reasons why we should stop the push to make the much-hyped word-guessing machines ubiquitous.

Check it out:
www.accessnow.org/artificial-i... @accessnow.org

Artificial Insecurity: access and availability in the age of AI - Access Now In the third part of our blog series, we look at how the availability of systems is impacted by the proliferation of large language models.

Have you ever asked a question ChatGPT refuses to answer? Or used an AI agent that deleted your data?

Check out part 3 of our blog series on AI and Digital Security, where we explore how AI tools impact access to and availability of systems we rely on:

The AI-Cyber Nexus: a strategic dialogue on global security, trust, and governance. February 20, 2026 at 3:30 PM, Chanakya Auditorium, Sushma Swaraj Bhawan. Speakers: Raman Jit Singh Chima, Access Now, Global Cybersecurity Lead; Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard, Tech Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark; Maria Paz Canales, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Global Partners Digital; Udbhav Tiwari, Vice President, Strategy and Global Affairs at Signal; Nikolas Schmidt, Policy Analyst, Division of AI and Emerging Tech at OECD. Moderator: Nirmal John, Senior Editor at Economic Times

We’re back with a reminder: don’t forget to register for “The AI Cyber Nexus: a strategic dialogue on global security, trust, and governance,” where we’ll explore how AI governance and cybersecurity intersect and what it means for people’s rights.

www.accessnow.org/event/access...

AWO’s Algorithm Governance Roundup is out! This month, we spoke to Daniel Leufer @djleufer.bsky.social about how the AI Omnibus could weaken fundamental rights safeguards in the AI Act.👇
eomail5.com/web-version?...

Newsletter is out! Was great to speak to @djleufer.bsky.social about how the EU's AI Omnibus undermines key AI Act transparency requirements – which were a crucial step towards accountability & fundamental rights redress – and the broader context of simplification. Well worth a read here.👇

Artificial Insecurity: how AI tools compromise confidentiality - Access Now In the first part of our blog series on the dodgy digital security practices underlying advanced AI tools, we unpack how LLMs can jeopardize the confidentiality of people’s data.

Has your favorite chatbot spilled your gossip? Did an AI agent just expose your credit card details?

Our new blog series on AI and digital security shows how AI tools threaten privacy and confidentiality, and why human rights safeguards are essential.
www.accessnow.org/artificial-i...

Digital Rights Are on the Chopping Block in the European Commission’s Omnibus | TechPolicy.Press Changes proposed under the Digital Omnibus point to a shift away from empowering people and towards granting discretion to business, writes Daniel Leufer.

Digital Rights Are on the Chopping Block in the European Commission’s Omnibus
#DigitalOmnibus
By @djleufer.bsky.social of @accessnow.org
www.techpolicy.press/digital-righ...

EU ruling: tracking-based advertising by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, X, across Europe has no legal basis EU data protection authorities find that the consent popups that plagued Europeans for years are illegal. All data collected through them must be deleted. This decision impacts Google’s, Amazon’s and ...

Big news this evening

This EU ruling has been 7 years in the making

www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

This is bleak reading

Looking forward to this vital discussion at @cpdpconferences.bsky.social next week

Looking forward to this vital discussion at @cpdpconferences.bsky.social next week

"Technologies at war: The role of tech companies and the EU in facilitating war crimes and genocide in Gaza" Israel has deployed digital technologies to fuel the atrocities committed in its war in Gaza. The report by the United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories highlights how digital technologies are facilitating human rights abuses in Gaza, including actions consistent with the crime of genocide. Israel's digital warfare in Gaza presents an unprecedented blueprint for the militarization of data and digital technologies, “AI-washing” gross violations of international law. It also forces the door wide-open for further collusion between Big Tech and the military posing grave risks to fundamental rights, peace, and security elsewhere. Gaza, and occupied Palestine at-large, have become open-air technology expositions; a live laboratory for the testing and marketing of unprecedented technologies of violence, at the expense of Palestinians. Questions to be answered: - How are tech companies facilitating war crimes and genocide in Gaza through cloud computing, content moderation, hardware provision etc? - What role is the EU playing here, such as through funding or the export of technologies by EU companies? - Which legal instruments are applicable to the role of technologies here, and what avenues can be taken to stop this facilitation of war crimes and genocide? - What strategies or leverage points can be used to challenge and resist complicity in the tech-facilitated war on Gaza? Organised by Access Now with Daniel Leufer (moderator), Marwa Fatafta, Sarah Chander, Matt Mahmoudi, Lydia De Leeuw

Technologies at war: The role of tech companies & the EU in facilitating war crimes and genocide in Gaza

Organised by @accessnow.org with Daniel Leufer (moderator), Marwa Fatafta, Sarah Chander, @docmattmoudi.bsky.social, @lydiadeleeuw.bsky.social

More info: cpdp.be/1936
#TheWorldIsWatching #CPDP

NSO Fined $168 Million for Pegasus Spyware Attack on WhatsApp In a landmark verdict, NSO Group must pay almost $168 million in damages for using Pegasus spyware to target WhatsApp.

A major win for privacy!

Israeli spyware company NSO has been ordered to pay almost $168 million in damages for targeting WhatsApp with Pegasus spyware. Access Now and partners will continue to advocate for NSO to be held accountable for its actions.

www.accessnow.org/press-releas...